


Allies to save the Lifestreams

by goddamnitaisha



Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Oneshot, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-05 01:56:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10294853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goddamnitaisha/pseuds/goddamnitaisha
Summary: (oneshot)(lore-heavy) Sephiroth revives Aerith. He explains his vision of the world, and why he needs her to 'save' it. She rejects his words with a twist.





	

Sephiroth wandered into the lake of the City of Ancients. When the water reached up to his waist, he reached down. He reached deep. And in the depth of the water he grabbed a hand. He pulled Aerith up. When she broke through the surface, she gasped for air. She trashed, and droplets sprang around then as if a glass chandelier had crashed on them. And amidst the ferocious darts of water and leaps of waves, Sephiroth held one arm tightly slung around her thin waist. “Resurrection isn’t so difficult, is it?”

“Let go!”

Sephiroth let go. 

Aerith pushed off him, and then came to the frightening realisation that she could not swim. Years in the Lifestream had taught her many things, but she could not do as much as a dog peddle! Now she was alive, she wanted to survive! All of the water suddenly became her biggest enemy - more of an enemy than Sephiroth. 

“You can’t swim,” he said.

Aerith sank, but could not feel the bottom of the lake under her feet. Whatever Sephiroth was standing on, she could not see it. She tried to jump, bit the water under her feet gave way. She grew desperate. She grabbed the surface but there was nothing to hold on to, until suddenly Sephiroth reached out his hand. She took it, and grabbed his arm, hauling herself in by the lifeline of his black leather sleeve. She depended on him not to sink as she put her hands on his shoulder pauldrons and hung on for life.  
“When was I supposed to learn how to swim?” she panted.

He gently cupped her thighs and waist. He turned around, and very slowly, he began to walk to the edge of the lake. 

He was too goddamn tall.

“What are you smirking for?” she said. “Its not funny!”

Water poured from their bodies and fell on the drenched mud with the sound of heavy rain on a tent roof. 

“It has been long,” Sephiroth lowered her to her feet above a patch of white grass. “…-since someone has behaved so thoroughly unimpressed with me.”

And then she remembered she ought to be afraid. This was Sephiroth. In the Lifestream, when she had moved to his area to see what he had been up to when planting the Stigma, he had only to laugh, and she had ran away. And now she stood before him, soaked and shivering. Her body remembered the dread. She crossed her arms over her chest - partially to defy him, partially because she was so cold. “What do you want?”

He took a fire materia from his bracelet, warmed it up by blowing on it, and gave it to her. 

She, weaponless, took it. She rolled it between her hands, and the heat spread to her elbows and then over her shoulders to her neck. She did not say thanks, but was glad for the heat. Maybe she could use it as a weapon, blast his hair off his skull. But no, the thought of physical violence was almost laughable if she didn’t feel so darn tiny compared to him. Sephiroth was fire resistant, and too frighteningly powerful. “What do you want?” She asked again. 

“An… experiment,” he began. 

“No.” she said.

“…that is a continuation of Project J and project I.”

“Project I?”

“Ifalna,” said he. 

She said nothing.

“Before his death, your father, Professor Gast,”

“My father?” She didn’t know what to say and was not sure she wanted to hear this from his mouth.

“-eloped with your mother to the Northern Continent, to get away from Shin-Ra. There he imagined them to be safe for a while, as they could have gone any place in the world. But the Professor stumbled upon a piece of information leading to the landing place of Jenova. He began to research the Red Lifestream, and how it could be used-”

-“I don’t want to hear this.”

“As a power source to revitalize the dying Planet. He began project I.” Sephiroth had dried completely, as if he repelled the water like he repelled her. Everything he stood for - the war, the coldness, the murder, made her nauseous. She should walk away, but his hypnotic voice kept her prisoner. He talked on, slowly, looking at her face with eyes she wanted to hide from. She wanted to scratch them out.

“He discovered there were three genetic components on the planet: Gaia’s Cetra, of which your mother was the last pure-blood; humans, which had arrived in their space ships that are now fossils in Bone Village; and Jenova’s Cetra, of which my mother was the last pureblood.”

“Stop it,” she said. She walked a few steps back, but he simply walked forward, advancing like a predator. 

“The Red and Green Lifestreams cannot be combined and will fight each other to the death and beyond. But if a new, third Lifestream could be created, it could tap energy from both and swallow them up: growing in twice the power.”

“Stop talking, Sephiroth, shut up!” Her shoulder hit a tree. 

“Project S ensured a human-Jenovian offspring. He advanced in Project I, to create a human-Cetran offpring,” the warlord voice grew lower as he came closer, as if he enjoyed spelling this out for her. “…Aerith, we are the same.”

She slapped him on the cheek. The PAT of impact echoed over the still water of the lake. 

Sephiroth kept his head faced to the right, then slowly turned his gaze back to her. He looked mad. He looked insane with his toxic green eyes. “We both stem from ancient Livestreams, making us Cetrs. Our combined human component makes us able to reproduce. A child would have my superior brilliance and physical abilities, and your... your-” His expression changed, and she could read his thought: _what are you even good for?_

She moved to slap him again, but he stopped her hand an inch from his face, and held her wrist in a crushing grip. He was amazingly strong. “I will not let you do that a second time.”

She didn’t want to hear this stupid story, she wanted her wrist free, she wanted to go, she wished she was back in the Lifestream.

“Our child will be able to turn the planet into the Promised Land,” Sephiroth said. “…the place of supreme happiness.”

“No;” Aerith said.

“This is an opportunity unlike any other,” Sephiroth protested.

“Did you think I would just accept?”

“…?”

“You buy me dinner first,” Aerith was pale with fright, but still wiggled a finger in his face. “…and then we can slowly begin to talk this over. Gosh! The audacity!” 

Sephiroth clearly did not know how to respond. 

“And for killing me -and everything else- you are going to give me a proper apology!”


End file.
